Jade Palace
The Jade Palace is a large, elaborately-designed, and sacred that overlooks the Valley of Peace on top of the Jade Mountain and can be seen for hundreds of miles. It is known to be a symbol of justice, honor, and courage.Kung Fu Panda Official Site - The Jade Palace (old version; retrieved July 27, 2010) The Palace itself is the outside structure for the sacred Hall of Warriors, which contains all the artifacts of past masters, the Moon Pool, the Dragon Scroll, and the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu. The palace grounds contain an arena for public tournaments, a newly-renovated training hall with an outdoor training courtyard and student barracks, a bell tower, and Peach Tree Hill (the resting place of the revered Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom). Background The Jade Palace was constructed nine hundred years ago by the Valley's grateful citizens in honor of Oogway for creating Kung Fu to help protect the soft and weak from the hard and strong. Like many other palaces, the Jade Palace and its grounds are a complex that serve as a grand residence for Kung Fu masters and students. Many Kung Fu masters have lived and trained in the Palace since its construction, presumably under Master Oogway's instruction. The Palace currently serves as the home of the Furious Five. History Before Kung Fu Panda Some time after Shifu had reached the rank of master, he discovered an infant outside the palace doors. He took the child in, named him Tai Lung, and raised him as a son. One day, Tai Lung approached the dummy in the Training Hall, and in the process showed unusual talent in Kung Fu. Shifu spent years afterwards training Tai Lung, showing excessive pride and believing that Tai Lung was the destined Dragon Warrior. Indeed, the snow leopard was nothing short of a prodigy, but one master disapproved; Oogway observed Tai Lung's progress and was concerned when he saw the darkness that was growing in his heart, fed by both Tai Lung and Shifu's growing pride. When Tai Lung was eventually presented to him, Oogway ultimately denied the leopard the Dragon Scroll. This, along with Shifu's reluctance to speak up on his behalf, caused Tai Lung's pride to turn to corruption and rage. He laid waste to the Valley of Peace before rushing back to the palace and crashing through the doors of the Hall of Warriors, with the intent to take the Dragon Scroll by force. Shifu and Oogway were waiting for him, and Shifu attempted to deliver a kick to Tai Lung. However, Shifu still loved his adopted son, and hesitated at the last second; he paid dearly for his hesitation when Tai Lung shattered his hip and sent him flying back across the room. Fortunately, Oogway was able to stop Tai Lung himself, and the snow leopard was then sent to Chorh-Gom Prison for his crimes against the Valley of Peace. This horrific incident left Shifu emotionally scarred. He continued to teach at the Jade Palace, but this time with a stern and distant attitude toward his students. He also redesigned the Training Hall to feature the most deadly course ever built. Over the next twenty years, Shifu trained a quintet of new students who eventually became known as the Furious Five. In Kung Fu Panda Twenty years after Tai Lung was sent away to prison, Oogway had a vision that he would return and take revenge on the Valley. He informed Shifu of his vision, and it was decided that it was time for the Dragon Warrior to be chosen. Shifu also ordered a palace goose named Zeng to travel to Chor Gom prison to make sure security is doubled. Soon after this, a tournament was held in the Palace Arena, in which the Furious Five would compete to decided which of them would be chosen by Oogway. Once the Five had each performed in the arena, Oogway prepared to make his decision. Just when it appeared that he was about to point at Tigress, a large panda named Po suddenly fell out of the sky and in front of Oogway's pointing finger. Oogway took this as a sign and chose Po as the Dragon Warrior, much to Shifu and the Five's shock. The equally astonished Po was immediately brought up to the palace and placed in the Hall of Warriors, where he spent his time admiring the many artifacts until Shifu approached him. Having previously decided to get rid of the panda, Shifu began insulting Po in order to get him to quit, and eventually took him to the Training Hall, where Po humiliated himself in front of the Furious Five when he attempted to spar with the adversary and failed spectacularly in the Kung Fu course. That night at the Student Barracks, the Five made clear their own disdain for Po and disheartened, Po spent the night at the Peach Tree Hill, devouring the peaches from the tree, until Oogway found him and gave him some encouraging advice. The next day, Shifu and the Five were surprised to find that Po had reached the Training Hall courtyard first, and reluctantly began training him. Still wishing to get rid of the panda, Shifu made Po's training tantamount to torture, but Po tenaciously refused to quit. While this frustrated Shifu, it caused the Furious Five (minus Tigress) to warm up to the panda. In the evening, while Po was receiving acupuncture in the Student Barracks, Shifu was meditating in the Training Hall, though he struggled to gain inner peace. He was soon interrupted when Zeng returned from his mission and gave the master terrible news; Tai Lung has escaped. Shifu rushed to the peach tree hill where Oogway was performing Tai Chi, and informed his friend of this. Oogway simply advised Shifu to 'believe' in Po as the Dragon Warrior before ascending to the heavens in a cloud of peach blossoms. Saddened by Oogway's passing, Shifu nevertheless met Po and the Five in the kitchen, where he told them the news of Tai Lung's escape and Oogway's passing. Po panicked and attempted to flee the palace, but Shifu stopped him, and in the argument that followed, Shifu learned that not only did Po suffer from a crippling self loathing, but that he himself had no idea as to how to make Po the Dragon Warrior. Shifu spent the remainder of the night beneath the peach tree in deep thought, until he overheard Po performing Kung Fu in the distance. Initially thinking that the sounds were coming from the Training Hall, Shifu found the hall empty and instead found the panda in the kitchen, inadvertently showing a knack of Kung Fu while searching for food to gorge on. Seeing this, Shifu saw a way he could train Po and took him into the Wu Dan Mountains, where he successfully trained Po using food as motivation. Days later, Po and Shifu returned to the Jade Palace just before Crane also returned carrying his paralyzed comrades; the Furious Five had left the palace to confront Tai Lung themselves, but were all beaten by his nerve attack. After Shifu freed the Five from paralysis, he decided that Po was ready to receive the Dragon Scroll. Once Shifu had retrieved the scroll, Po opened the scroll to find it blank. With nothing left to do, Shifu told Po and the Five to evacuate the valley while he would confront Tai Lung in battle to the death. Shifu waited in front of the Hall of Warriors alone, until Tai Lung finally arrived and they battled. Tai Lung let out all of his rage as they battled, and Shifu was eventually defeated and almost killed until Po unexpectedly returned, with the scroll in hand, having discovered its symbolic meaning. The battle that followed sent them flying out of the palace and down into the village, and Tai Lung was eventually vanquished by Po's Wuxi Finger Hold. While being cheered by the residents of the valley, Po remembered that Shifu was injured back up at the palace, and rushed back up to the palace to find Shifu still in the Hall of Warriors, injured but alive. After learning of Tai Lung's defeat, Shifu was finally at peace, and he and Po meditated next to the Moon Pool for a minute before Po suggested getting something to eat, to which Shifu agreed. In Secrets of the Furious Five Coming soon! In Kung Fu Panda Holiday Coming soon! In Kung Fu Panda 2 Some time after the events of Kung Fu Panda, Po and the Furious Five were first seen in the Training Hall. The Five were staring in awe at Po's stunt of stuffing forty bean buns into his mouth. After Po had successfully finished this stunt, he was summoned to the Dragon Grotto, where Shifu was to begin teaching him how to attain inner peace. Their lesson was cut short when Tigress alerted Po to the issue of bandits invading the Musicians Village. One day, Po, the Five, and Shifu gathered outside the palace, as Shifu had just received a message concerning the death of Thundering Rhino at the hands of Lord Shen and his new weapon, which was a giant cannon. Po and the Furious Five immediately set out from the palace to face this threat. Days after their departure, Shifu was meditating in the Dragon Grotto when he suddenly sensed that something terrible had happened (at the same time, Po had been blasted by Shen's cannon). He, too, traveled to Gongmen City to join the battle against Shen's armada. In Legends of Awesomeness Coming soon! In Secrets of the Masters Coming soon! Notable Locations HallOfWarriors.jpg|The Sacred Hall of Warriors|link=Hall of Warriors PalaceArena.PNG|The Palace Arena|link=Palace Arena TrainingHall.jpg|The Training Hall|link=Training Hall Palace&Barracks.jpg|The student barracks|link=Student Barracks PeachTreeHill.jpg|Peach Tree Hill|link=Peach Tree Hill DragonGrottoExt.jpg|The Dragon Grotto|link=Dragon Grotto Design and Architecture Exterior Coming soon! Interior :See Hall of Warriors Trivia *Filmmakers took inspiration from Chinese films — the Jade Palace interior pays homage to the King's palace in Hero.Kung Fu Panda Fun Facts by HP *Chinese art provided reference and directly influenced many of the film's designs. The Jade Palace floor, for example, features the . *Early in the development of the movie script, Po's final training "test" was to catch a single droplet of water as it fell off a mystical root found growing down into a sacred chamber underneath the Jade Palace. *One location concept that didn't make it into the film was the "Vault of Heroes", housed beneath the base of the palace's steps, which featured a cavern of 100-foot-tall statues of Kung Fu heroes. It was an underground location for a fight between Tai Lung and Po, where it would have been revealed via a giant statue that a panda would be a great Kung Fu master.Miller-Zarneke, Tracey. The Art of Kung Fu Panda, p. 184. : *According to the designers at , the Jade Palace is made of 88,100 different surfaces/pieces. *There were 2,306 spectators in the palace arena during the Dragon Warrior ceremony. *It took a combined 54 systems (including rockets, trails, lights and emitters) to create the single effect of Po riding the firework chair, which then took 953,593 particles to disintegrate. *When Po is chosen as the Dragon Warrior, the total amount of individual confetti pieces used in sq. 600 added up to exactly 1,040,229. Gallery Jade-palace-art.png|Concept illustration of the Jade Palace by Tang Kheng Heng and Raymond Zibach JadePalaceSky.jpg Kungfu-disneyscreencaps.com-1071.jpg JadePalaceDW.jpg 359px.png|The Jade Palace at night in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness References Category:Locations Category:Film Locations Category:Kung Fu Panda World Locations Category:Kung Fu Panda Holiday Locations Category:TV Series Locations Category:Video Game Locations Category:Landmarks Category:Structures